The Path to Revenge
by PunyHooman
Summary: Jack Grafton, a seventeen year old from the colony of Hat Yai, has lost everything. His colony, his family, his friends, everything. Now he seeks revenge against the empire that took everything from him. Revenge, however, is not as simple as it seems. Thrown into a chaotic war that he doesn't understand, Jack will struggle to survive through the end of the war.


**[1500 Hours, November 29th, 2528 / Raj City, Hat Yai Colony]**

The seventeen year old Jack Grafton sighed as he stood up from his school desk after the bell had rang, informing both students and the school's faculty that school was finished. Jack ran a hand through his crew-cut black hair while he picked up his binder and two text books.

"Remember that your essays on the discovery of the slip space phenomenon is due on Monday the minute you walk in." Jack's history teacher reminded the class of juniors as they shuffled out of the classroom.

Just another essay he would write last minute. Jack headed out the door, followed closely by one of his friends who had the same class, Alec Bajorek. "Hey Jack. What are you doing after school?" The sixteen year old of Polish descent questioned as the two walked through the halls of

"What I always do. Go home, eat, play some games. Why? What are you doing?" Jack stopped at his locker so he could place his school items within and head out to where his truck was.

Alec smiled. "I'm heading over to the recruiter's office." He explained.

Jack sighed as he shoved his binder and book into his locker before closing it. "Come on Alec. I know you want to fight but at least finish up high school. I've got a sneaking suspicion this war isn't going to be done in two years. Besides that, you're gonna get yourself killed without your wing-man." Alec chuckled at Jack's last comment.

"You're old enough too, you know."

"Like my old man would sign the papers. Aliens on our doorstep, destroying homes, and he's worried about our family. He can risk his life as a police officer but I can't defend our way of life." The two were already out out of the school and heading towards the parking lot to their vehicles. Jack drove a pickup truck that was about fifteen years old while Alec drove a two year old sedan. They parked next to one another.

Alec shook his head as Jack opened the door to his truck. "Come on Jack. How long are you gonna listen to your dear old dad? The UNSC always needs more people. You're one of the brightest people I know. You've got a chance to make a difference in this war. Don't let your dad stop that." He explained while Jack closed his truck door and rolled the window down.

"You're even starting to sound like one of those recruiter jarheads. Tell you what, before you head over to the recruiter and sign your life away let's go get something to eat over at that joint you like so much. What's it called? The Slop Hut or some crap like that?"

"The Slop House." Alec corrected him while moving to get into his own car. "Sounds good. I'll lead the way." He said before climbing into his sedan and closing the driver side door. They both started up their vehicles and left the parking lot of the Raj Intercity High School. They drove for a bit before getting onto the highway

Jack followed closely as Alec led the way through the small capital city of an estimated one hundred thousand people with another forty thousand in smaller outlying towns and hamlets. The colony of Hat Yai only had one main continent the size of Africa. It was, however, a tropical planet, characterized by tropical rainforests making it a popular tourist spot in the Outer Colonies.

That was why Jack didn't pay any attention when the ground rattled and the sound of engines came from above. He just assumed it was a monthly tourist ship landing at Raj City Spaceport.

He slammed on his brakes, nearly avoiding a collision, as Alec's sedan came to a sudden halt. Jack got out of his truck, confused as to why Alec had stopped so suddenly. He glanced over at Alec's sedan. Alec had emerged from his car and was now staring up at the sky, towards the Raj City's eastern skyline. Jack turned and glanced, his mouth hanging open in awe. One SDV-class heavy corvette, one CPV-class heavy destroyer and CRS-class light cruiser now occupied the space above downtown Raj City. Smaller craft were pouring from the ships, heading every direction. "Oh my god..." Jack could hear Alec mutter.

Suddenly, plumes of smoke began to appear across the city. Sounds of battle and screams could be heard in the distance. Cars rushed by the two halted vehicles as they tried to get as far away as possible. Dozens of Covenant drop-ships flew overhead. Jack and Alec both threw themselves to the ground. Those craft were just a few hundred feet off the ground.

Jack quickly stood up, rushed to the passenger side of his truck, got into the glove compartment and emerged with a sleek, black M6A civilian model sidearm. "Jack. What the fuck's going on?" Alec questioned as the sounds of destruction got closer and closer.

Jack slipped a magazine into the pistol and chambered a round while shoving an extra magazine into the pocket of his cargo pants. He took one more look at the skyline where the two Covenant ships were currently hovering. Several Pelican drop-ships were flying around, avoiding fire from enemy ships. Jack could see what looked like soldiers running through the streets. "Get in Alec!" Jack shouted, hopping back into the driver's seat of his truck. Alec sprinted to the passenger side, opened the door and climbed in.

Five Covenant Type-26 ground support aircraft flew over the highway, strafing several halted vehicles with hot plasma, including Alec's sedan. Jack quickly reversed his truck as Alec's sedan caught ablaze. "Fuck me!" Alec shouted in disbelief as the Banshees flew down the highway, terrorizing cars and trucks that were attempting to flee from the onslaught. Jack exited through an entrance ramp, swerving to avoid several close collisions with other vehicles, and turned left heading towards the neighborhood Jack and Alec were from.

"Glove compartment, very back." Jack stated calmly. Alec looked over at him with a confused look before opening the compartment and rummaging through the junk. He pulled his arm out and in his hand he held a black M6A handgun and a magazine. "Load it." Jack ordered, turning tightly to avoid a smoldering wreck in the middle of the road. He continued down a main road for several more second before turning onto a secondary road into a residential zone.

People were scrambling every direction while Covenant landing ships began hitting the ground and dropping off troops. One Banshee broke off from its squadron and flew a strafing run against Jack's truck. Plasma shots landed around the truck, surprising both Jack and Alec. Jack quickly turned sharply into his home driveway. He snatched his handgun from Alec and hopped out, not even bothering to turn his truck off. "Check on your folks!" Jack shouted, pointing at Alec's house across the street.

Alec nodded and sprinted to his house while Jack stormed into his house. "Mom! Dad!" He shouted, running into different rooms of the house. No sign of them. He quickly checked the garage. The family car was missing. Alec ran into the front door, followed closely by his mother, father, and brother who was only two years younger then Alec. "My parents left." Jack stated, putting his handgun into his sweatshirt pocket and heading towards the staircase of his two story home.

He paused and turned to Alec, handing him his handgun. "Stay here. Don't go outside." Jack ordered before heading up the stairs and into his parents room. He leaned over, pulled a case out from underneath his parent's bed and opened it. Jack grabbed a civilian sporterized M392 designated marksman rifle from the case and the two magazines his father kept alongside the rifle. They were both loaded with fifteen rounds.

Jack headed downstairs while the sound of battle waged in the not-so-far distance. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, an explosion shook the two story house to its core, causing several pictures to fall off the wall. The lights flickered before going out. Jack assumed that the Covenant had destroyed the power grid for that area. "Alec. Take your family and get to the spaceport." Jack ordered while he chambered a round into his DMR.

"What about you?" Alec questioned.

"I'll lead you guys out in my truck." Jack explained while opening the front door. He shouldered his DMR, went outside and scanned the area to make sure it was clear of any Covenant. Jack doubted the aliens would care about several stray civilians but the bodies strewn about the neighborhood told him different. He moved to the driver side of his pickup truck while Alec and his family crossed the street to their house to load into the family's SUV.

Suddenly, several Type-25 troop carriers, nicknamed Spirits, flew over the neighborhood and began landing. They were accompanied by Banshees who escorted them. The Banshees broke off when they saw the family try to cross the street. They were heading right for the family SUV. Jack raised his DMR and fired sporadically at them, trying to deter their path.

It didn't work. One of the Banshees fired its fuel rod cannon, destroying the SUV and incinerating Alec and his family. "No!" Jack screamed, eyes wide in disbelief. A family he had known almost his entire life had just disappeared before his very eyes. He stared for several more seconds, blinking away tears. He couldn't believe what he had just seen. They were just... gone.

Jack climbed into his truck as the ground troops the drop-ships had left diverged on his location. He threw it into reverse, backed out of his driveway and sped down the residential road. Several cars also flew through the neighborhood, attempting to escape the Covenant onslaught. Several vehicles he passed were ablaze from fuel rod cannons.

* * *

**[1545 Hours, November 29th, 2528 / Raj City Spaceport, Hat Yai Colony]**

* * *

Jack had just arrived at the spaceport and things, so far, did not look good. Members of the Hat Yai Colonial militia and Raj City police officers were escorting people into the spaceport while UNSC marines and army troopers held a defensive line against a large Covenant assault, aimed at taking the spaceport. Jack had come from a part of the city that hadn't been fully occupied by the invading Covenant yet. He was one of the lucky ones.

Dead and wounded military personnel lay everywhere, alongside civilians and police officers. Panicked civilians rushed into the spaceport, attempting to gain passage aboard one of the six UNSC civilian transport ships that were being used to evacuate troops and civilians alike. Jack exited his truck with his DMR in hand and jogged up to one of the militiamen. He was armed with an outdated MA3 assault rifle and seemed to be giving the orders. "Is there something I can do?" Jack asked over the sounds of battle and panicked civilians.

The militiaman looked him over and nodded his head. "I hate to do this to you, kid, but I need help. We gotta get as many of these civilians onto the transports as we can. The line ain't gonna hold much longer. I'm Staff Sergeant Anthony." The older, gruff man stated, picking up a combat helmet from nearby and handing it to Jack. It had a drying blood stain on the inside and a hole that went through the forehead and out the back.

"Jones got hit hard." A different militiaman standing near the two added solemnly while directing civilians inside.

Jack nodded and, with trembling hands, placed the helmet on his head. He didn't much look like a member of the militia but to anybody else the rifle and the helmet said it all. Besides that, he wore a black sweatshirt with a hood, a pair of khaki cargo pants and a pair of black converses.

The militia leader strapped the helmet tightly onto Jack's head and handed him two extra magazines for his DMR. "They'll work for it. These damn things are universal." He explained. Jack simply nodded again. An explosion erupted from nearby, causing both Jack and Anthony to turn. "Fuck! They broke through!" Anthony exclaimed. "Defensive positions!" He ordered.

Colonial militiamen, armed with their aging military equipment, and police officers, armed with handguns and shotguns, took up spots behind concrete barriers, walls and abandoned cars. A few dozen marines and army troops were sprinting towards them, retreating from their overrun positions and joining the line of militia and police. One marine joined Jack behind his own pickup truck.

"How old are you kid?" The bloodied, disheveled marine questioned.

"Seventeen." Jack answered, voice wavering. He was terrified of what was about to happen.

The marine glanced over before returning his eyes back towards where the Covenant would come from. "Never thought I'd be fighting alongside kids and old men again. Thought that was over after Harvest. Thought this job was going to be a cakewalk. Recruit young people like yourself to go fight a war I didn't understand. Now here I am on the frontline again." He chuckled nervously.

Jack assumed he was from one of the recruiting stations in town. Possibly even the one Alec was going to talk to before this invasion happened. "Corporal Jeff O'Brien." The marine introduced himself. How he could be so calm in the middle of a war zone, Jack had no idea.

"Jack Grafton."

"Pleasure." The marine stated before Covenant stormed into the parking lot of the spaceport.

"Open fire!" One of the marines screamed. Seventy three rifle opened up simultaneously on the hundreds of grunts that were storming towards them, their feet like the hooves of a stampede. "This is how they do it!" O'Brien screamed over the gunfire. Jack fire several shots into a grunt that had gotten lucky enough to make it past the opening volley. "They send in the little buggers then the shield guys." As if one cue, jackals with shields appeared amidst the ranks of charging troops.

Several defenders fell from incoming plasma fire. O'Brien ducked down to reload while Jack took the shield of a jackal down and then ended the nimble beast's life with a shot to the head. He also ducked down to reload, hands shaking tremendously. He dropped the extra magazine twice before he finally got it steady enough to insert into his rifle. He chambered a round and popped up again, taking out two more grunts. Jack couldn't believe that these were sentient beings he was killing. He was killing things that wanted to kill him. That was all it was to him.

One of the transports took off, avoiding several shots from the Covenant ships. "Five more to go kid!" O'Brien shouted while unloading a magazine from his MA5B into a grunt. Jack heard an agonizing scream, causing him to turn and stare in awe. One of the army troopers was dangling in the air with what looked like an white sword sticking through him. Suddenly, a being in appeared from behind the trooper. "Split-jaw!" O'Brien shouted, discarding his rifle and emptying a magazine from his sidearm into the Sangheili.

It laughed at O'Brien but realized its life was threatened when ten more rifles joined the barrage of rounds being fire at it. Its shield went down as it began charging towards O'Brien and Jack, the two closest to it. It still kept coming, even after O'Brien emptied another handgun magazine into it. It finally fell when a courageous police officer charged into it, knocking it off its path, and finished it off with his M90 shotgun.

"Fall back!" An anonymous voice ordered. O'Brien and Jack shared a quick glance before joining the other defenders as they fell back through the spaceport's main entrance. O'Brien and Jack would be the last two in. That was until O'Brien fell from a shot to the back, melting through his fatigues and scorching his back. He screamed in agony, causing Jack to turn back.

"Come on!" Somebody shouted. Jack grabbed O'Brien as best he could and helped the wounded marine into the spaceport. Staff Sergeant Anthony closed the doors behind them and sealed the security door that was designed to withstand a blast from a rocket launcher. "That won't hold long." An army medic commented while taking O'Brien from Jack.

"We gotta start loading up." Anthony explained. From the two hundred and thirty one men and women that had been part of the defense of the spaceport only fifty six remained.

A marine Captain who wore the pants and shoes of a dress uniform and a combat harness over an undershirt stood atop a bench where everyone could hear him. "Alright, listen up! We're leaving this planet! I know many of you have families and friends that still may be in the city but we have to get out while the fleet still has a foothold in the skies. We'll be on the last transport out. It's time to leave." He explained.

The defenders muttered in general agreement. Most had no ties keeping them. Jack did. He wanted to know what happened to his parents. He attempted to find one of the officers he knew, hoping they would have information on his father. He finally found one he did know. Officer Sara Dwyer.

"Sara!" Jack shouted, rushing towards her.

She turned, hearing her name, and saw him running towards her. "Thank Christ kid!" Dwyer exclaimed as Jack came to stop in front of her. "Your pop was worried sick." She explained to him.

Jack's heart jumped. "So he's alive?" He asked.

"Yeah. He got hit though. I carried him to the transport myself, he was okay. Your mom was there too. And seeing how that's the next ship to fly off, they'll be out of here in no time." Dwyer explained to him while she holstered her sidearm. She wore one of the Hat Yai police departments riot uniforms, indicating that she had been at headquarters when the invasion started. Just as she finished explaining, the second transport began taking off, shaking the spaceport. "There they go." She said with a faint smile as the ship completed taking off and moved to leave the city.

Jack heard a loud explosion that nearly deafened him. "What the hell was that!?" Someone shouted. "The transport's been hit!" Another screamed. Jack's heart dropped again just as another explosion was heard, followed by the rumbling of the ground. He dropped his rifle and almost dropped to his knees after the second explosion, only held up by Dwyer who had embraced him tightly. "Bastards!" Somebody shouted as several civilians also sunk to their knees, sobbing.

"It's time to go." Another officer who had the name 'Jackson' printed on his chest piece muttered to Dwyer who nodded her head. She leaned down while holding Jack, picked up the DMR and practically dragged Jack across the spaceport to the third transport loading bay. They loaded into the ship and found a set of empty seats. The other officer stood, letting others sit down before him. Sobs and worried chatter filled the ship.

Jack could barely hear anything. His ears were ringing and tears were now running down his cheeks. No point in trying to blink them away. They would come no matter what.

"At least we made it..." Somebody behind Jack muttered. In the matter of forty five minutes, the Covenant had nearly occupied the entire city of Raj City, ravaged the colony of Hat Yai and destroyed Jack's entire life. He couldn't believe it...


End file.
